New York Post
Why this year’s Tony Awards may be ‘a little muted’
By Michael Riedel
May 30, 2017 | 11:20pm

As the Tony Award telecast starts to come together, there’s concern that the June 11 show might be, as one Broadway insider puts it, “a little muted.”

CBS, which broadcasts the Tonys, likes big numbers from high-profile shows. And while this year’s crop of new musicals is diverse and exciting, there’s no “Hamilton”-size blockbuster. Nor are there showstopping songs along the lines of “Circle of Life” from “The Lion King” or “Defying Gravity” from “Wicked” — powerful songs that can stand on their own terms, out of the show’s context.Read More

BroadwayWorld asked our readers for opinions on the news that Bette Midler may not perform on the Tonys due to a production dispute between HELLO, DOLLY! and The Tony Awards producers.

The New York Times reports that the production wants to perform the show’s famous title number, by remote from its theatre … an idea that’s happened in the past, but CBS has turned down, not wanting to start a new precedent.Read More

Broadway World
Ribbons Down Their Backs: The Supporting Ladies of HELLO, DOLLY!
by Julie Musbach
May. 29, 2017

Hello, Dolly! is one of the most famous Broadway star vehicles, and no production has yet made that clearer than the one with Bette Midler‘s name floating high atop the marquee (along with the ‘sold out’ sign). But what about the supporting ladies that fill the stage alongside the whirlwind Dolly Levi?

Horace Vandergelder’s original first conquest, the dissatisfied milliner Irene Malloy, was played by Eileen Brennan. By the time she took on the featured role in the 1964 production, Brennan was already an established star of the stage. Her big break came from a 1959 Off-Broadway show Little Mary Sunshine for which she won an Obie and a Theatre World Award. Following a tour of The Miracle Worker and a run asRead More